Name
Valora Beaumont

Alias
Shift

Age
25

Gender
Female

Personality
At the base of her personality Valora would simply be described as a “nervous wreck”. Nearly every action she does has an undercurrent of fear or anxiousness, and while at her core she’s kind-hearted Valora can put people off due to being unable to suppress her nerves naturally. It’s not uncommon to find her fidgeting during conversation, darting her gaze around everywhere but at the other person’s face, or in extreme cases hyperventilating. This is particularly prevalent around animal presences.

This provides a ripe breeding ground for Valora to be easily cajoled as well, provided she’s not more afraid of whatever task is presented to her. She has a deep desire to either be seen as helpful, or at least not useless.

Of course, all of these personality traits can disappear under unplanned use of her abilities.

Powers
As may be determined by her alias, Shift is a shapeshifter. Specifically she specializes in taking on the form of any animal presented to her, particularly if they are physically nearby. While she doesn’t need an animal nearby in order to take on its form, it makes it significantly easier - when touching the animal the transformation is near instantaneous. If it’s in the vicinity the transformation can take a few seconds, while a more exotic animal that wouldn’t be around her can take up to a minute.

However, Shift doesn’t need to fully transform herself either. She’s able to shift or grow only certain body parts, and with effort can be a mix-mash of creatures [up to three]. She is also not limited by the physical restraints of the creature, but rather by her own energy - in one instance of being exposed to a canine after an optimized week of rest and food her subsequent transformation reached four hundred pounds. Her usual shifts at regular health end up with her transformation being slightly bigger than the normal perimeters of the animal. Further, animals appear to be attracted to her presence and respond to her emotions if presented.

The apparent downfall of her powers lays in the fact that Shift, when not transforming on her own, can be influenced by nearby animals. This usually manifests as being unable to help but take on some aspects of their appearance [she has reported often having feathers sprouting while in the Tower], but more dangerously her personality can be influenced by creatures as well. In the Tower she sometimes finds herself collecting shiny objects, as an example. In the most extreme circumstances when her personality is completely overtaken by animalistic urges, usually from predators and her own fear response, she can fall to rages. Peculiarly, staff at the Academy and subsequently handlers from New Horizon often find themselves the targets of these rampages.

Precautions
Dampening Bracelet

Equipment
Injector

Appearance
Standing at an impressive six feet even, Valora’s height along with a thin frame combines to make her have a somewhat sickly appearance with boney features, compounded further by a rather pale complexion. She has somewhat wavy dirty blonde hair going down to just beneath her shoulder blades, and even when her hair is pulled up she has long bangs that always cover her eyes.

This is particularly true on the left side of her face, using her hair to hide the lack of eyeball, as well as the deep and unattractive scarring that mars the skin on that side. It’s the worst around her eye, cutting thin lines across her brow and eyelid with deeper marks just below, dragging across her cheek to just above her jaw. The drag of teeth left the most noticeable marks, but on closer inspection the puncture scars are visible as well. Because of her lost eye Valora wears a simple cotton adhesive eyepatch, except on missions where her transformations would see her lose it anyway.

Shift’s ‘costume’ is actually just a well-made dark grey sleeveless top, as well as equally dark-grey loose pants. She doesn’t even wear shoes. Her clothes normally tear with transformations after all. For public appearances she’s been provided with a cloak that hangs off her right arm, made from the pelt of a grizzly bear to further emphasis her abilities.

History
Like so many before her, Valora started out as just a normal girl. The Beaumont family worked the lands of their own vineyard, having a somewhat small but selective collection of wine made and bottled by them. It was on these gently sloping hills and between the twisting vines that Valora often found herself playing as a small child, watched over by her parents or their various workers.

It was during one of these explorations that Valora, barely six years old, found herself at the edge of her parents’ property. It was harvesting season, and as such she was meant to stay out of the way, so off she went to this area at the edge of the overgrown forest nearby. As was usual for the girl she found herself playing with the birds that liked to collect around her, hopping at her feet or perching in her hair. However, it wasn’t just these avians that had taken interest in the girl that day.

The first thing that alerted the young girl that something was wrong was her little feathered friends scattering. Some merely hopped back, while the less brave merely took off to the trees. Following the collective gazes of the birds, Valora found a shaggy and malnourished wolf cautiously approaching, a limp to his front step - he was hurt. And though Valora’s innate gift brought him to this place and soothed his agitated nerves, a hurt predator was a hungry predator.

As such when Valora let out a startled scream it snapped whatever spell had fallen over the starved wolf. When the young girl scrambled to run instincts and desperation took over as the beast lunged after her. The blood curdling screams drew the nearby workers over, and though reluctant at first the wolf ended up dropping his meal and fleeing when struck repeatedly.

The attack couldn’t have lasted more than a minute, but the effects of the starved predator would stay with Valora forever. Even after she recovered the once outgoing girl was far happier huddled up to her mother’s skirts or within the safety of her family’s home, left with the permanent reminder of her attack by the maiming of the left side of her face. The birds that crowded around her window in the morning were terrifying reminders now, not the joyful song to wake up to. The neighbor’s dog was no longer a friendly pet, but a jaw full of sharp teeth and crushing jaws. It was a lonely existence the trauma made; afraid of outside her home, shunned by her younger siblings for her shifted worrying and hovering nature, terrified of what dangers lurked out there.

It didn’t help when Valora’s nightmares started haunting her waking hours. How her nails became almost like claws. Feathers sprouted along her arms. Her teeth, sharp and scraping against a broad tongue.

It culminated in high school. She had been doing so well hiding what was happening, for Valora was no fool. Something was wrong with her, something powerful and terrifying. Then one of her classmate’s parents brought his dog along to pick him up, and the creature got loose. Jumping on people, licking their face. To Valora, frozen in fear, when the dog jumped on her all she saw was the creature’s mouth opening wide and the white of his teeth, looming and sharp and dangerous-

She didn’t remember anything else of that day.

What Valora did remember was waking up in the hospital, with the people she’d find out were from New Horizon Academy. There she was informed of what happened - people injured, a dog killed, and Valora - what was supposed to be Valora anyway - fled into the wilds before being found, human and covered in blood. It was here she was given a choice, one she grabbed onto like a drowning man. The Academy would teach her how to stop this, how to control what was happening so it would never happen again.

Turns out a shifter is too valuable for people to be bothered with simple things like trauma. Valora was trained, yes, but rather than being able to forget she ever had these abilities she was instead thrust into the public eye as Shift, resident of the Tower and reluctant hero.

It’s rather ironic really, being caged up and used like little more than an animal.

Other
Has zoophobia, with a particular fear of canines. Therapy has only somewhat helped.